The White House and Republican negotiators came to a tentative agreement to raise the US debt ceiling and avert a possible default.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy arranged for a call with fellow House Republicans for 9:30 p.m. in Washington, according to a Bloomberg report, which cited people familiar with the matter. Specific details of the agreement were not immediately clear, according to a CNBC report.
McCarthy and Biden plan to talk again on Sunday and line the bill up for a vote on Wednesday, McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol on Saturday night.
“We still have a lot of work to do, but I believe this is an agreement in principle that is worthy of the American people,” McCarthy said, according to media reports.
President Joe Biden and McCarthy now need to get the deal across the finish line on the legislative side as it may face objections from hardliners on both sides of the aisle.
News of a tentative agreement comes after ratings service Fitch put the US “AAA” rating on watch negative on Wednesday. The US is in danger of losing Fitch Ratings’ top sovereign debt status due to “increased political partisanship that is hindering reaching a resolution to raise or suspend the debt limit,” the rating company said.
The headlines about a tentative deal between Biden and Republican negotiators also follows as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday moved out the so-called X-date by a few days. She now estimates that the Treasury will run out of options for paying the government’s obligations by June 5. Earlier, she had said that date could be as soon as June 1, but would certainly occur in early June.
Republican negotiators reportedly agreed to a smaller 3% increase in defense spending, according to a Reuters report on Friday. Non-defense discretionary spending is expected to be maintained at current levels.
Douglas Rissing
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